They already have Luai as their 5/8th… unless they want to move Munster to fullback? (he started out in that position). Can’t see where else the Chiefs would play him.
Agree that the tax breaks are a bit too advantageous, perhaps they need their salary cap to be lowered to offset that if they end up taking too many good players.
Panthers overcame an early 12-0 deficit to beat Eels 24-18 at Commbank Stadium tonight. Panthers had lost three of their past four matches.
Two good close exciting games tonight.
In the early game, the Roosters beat the Knights 23-22 with a late DCE field goal, the loss for Newcastle compounded by serious injuries to Dylan Lucas and Dylan Brown @ElCapitanCranky have you recovered from that yet?
And Souths held on 28-26 against the Storm in a see-sawing game that had 5 lead changes and one that will almost certainly end Melbourne’s streak of 15 consecutive finals appearances.
Last night frustrated the hell out of me. Same old story of key players getting injured. It can’t just simply be bad luck.
Also there is a section of the playing surface at MacJones that looked like a goat track.
The Knights training methods have been questioned in the past, since as you say, injuries are not uncommon at the Knights.
But you’d think with changes in coaching personnel, things would have been changed and now that they have their new CoE next door.
I’m a Newcastle supporter…I’m used to disappointment.
Canberra had a try overturned by the bunker in their NRLW loss to Cronulla today for the tryscorer’s hair going into touch. Not seen that before.
First the Bunker screws the NRL
Now they are screwing the NRLW
The Bunker is always nitpicking minor things which costs a team the game
The decision was a correct one based on the rules, however.
The prodigious use of the Bunker combined with the Captains’ Challenge has certainly slowed the game down (along with increasing sales of Bundaberg’s finest). It’s nearly as bad as the umpteen delays in the cricket. I’ve noticed that the second game in the double header has now been pushed back five minutes to accommodate all the delays, i.e. 8:05 PM rather than 8:00.
An average game is now taking two hours or a bit more to complete in regulation time. At least deliberate slowing down of the play isn’t as much of an issue in the football codes as in cricket, with slow over rates now endemic. All this slowing down means that there are more eyeballs glued to the advertisers for longer, of course.
Probably as much a tactical move by teams in order to help combat fatigue and give their players a rest, to try and get some momentum back, as much as wanting to get the ruling overturned.
The ones just before half/full time are the worst, when teams know they’ve got next to no hope of getting the ruling overturned but they use the Captains Challenge anyway since it’s one each half and it’s “use it or lose it”.
They may as well go down the American route and have timeouts. I wouldn’t be surprised if timeouts are introduced soon…they are of course the ultimate advertiser’s dream.
I’d be totally against the idea of a timeout. That changes the fabric of the game too much.
They’ll have stops whenever the sixth tackle is completed. You watch.
I think Gus Gould got it right a few weeks back - that the ref should have the final call for anything in the field of play, and a video ref just for checking ball grounding, not running back and seeing if the play itself was valid, if the ref let it go in live play, then it wasn’t clear enough of an issue to be overturning.
I’d rather a fast free flowing game, and being able to celebrate tries without worrying that they’ll spend 3 minutes watching back the last set looking for a reason to deny it.
Every team wins some and loses some out of good/bad refereeing calls - and half the time even with the bunker you aren’t 100% of the time getting the right outcome.
Great win by the Cowboys (18-10 over Brisbane). For the second night in a row, a Grand Finalist from last year has virtually been eliminated from this year’s finals race.
Earlier, Canberra thrashed the Wests Tigers 56-10 after a tumultuous week for black gold and white. And the Bulldogs had an upset 18-6 win over the Warriors, keeping them in the finals hunt.
Bloody Bulldogs. Stuffing up my tips.
Still witing patiently for ANY team to be relegated to last place for salary cap breaches, so that the Dragons cannot claim the wooden spoon…
Won’t happen. They like pointing and laughing at the Dragons and watching your team fail miserably. 
